Legal Notices

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

I used to live in a 1300 sf 3/2/1 house. When I moved, I took a 23 foot long truck full to the brim. I moved to a 2 BR apartment, and never unpacked most of what I took with me, sold a lot of the furniture and left some boxes of things I no longer wanted behind. I moved 4 times in the next five years, I moved five times, and each time, I didn't unpack most of my stuff, and ended up selling or leaving a lot of it behind.

I now have about 1/3 of what I owned when I left my original house, and it's still too much. I live in an adorable 520 sf 1 BR apartment with just enough space to garden. I've been here over three years and my bedroom is stacked with so many boxes and so much furniture that I can't use it as a bedroom.

Fear and Procrastination

The first year I was here, I didn't unpack because I was afraid I was going to have to move again. The second year was the same. I always had that fear that I would have to move, so I kept the boxes unpacked except for a few decorative items and things I needed to live. I have no excuse for the third year, except laziness.

Now, in year four, I've finally decided to get rid of all this crap and live like a normal person, but it's harder than I thought it would be.

Things I Can't Live Without
As I moved from place to place, I rid myself of all the things I could live without. What was left was things I thought I could not live without. I had this grand plan when I moved here to create storage space by going "up" so I wouldn't have to get rid of anything. The problem with that is, there is no room to go "up" in the ways I need to, so I'm stuck.

As I go through boxes, I discover there are many things I can actually do without, but I have this overwhelming urge to sell most of it. My mind keeps telling me that it's too much trouble, and I should just donate it all and take the time saved by not having to take pictures and put it all online to make probably more money than i would have made by selling it. Unfortunately, the part of my brain that is ashamed of having wasted all this money on things I shouldn't have bought and never really needed isn't allowing me to just give them away.

But there are things I can't live without, mostly sentimental things, so I have a lot of "keep" boxes as well. So far, the "keep" and "sell" boxes far outnumber the "donate" boxes. I think I'm just going to have to get really tough with myself and let go of some of the "sell" stuff.

Double Decluttering

The plan is to go back through all the "keep" boxes and find more I can part with. I'm seriously thinking of getting a storage space for the keep boxes until I can get the house set up to hold what's in them. I need shelving and such, and I can't even get that sort of stuff into the room right now.

I know that you're not supposed to go back through boxes, and I'm not doing it with things that I'm donating or selling, but I'm sure I probably decided to keep things on the spur of the moment that I don't actually need, so I can further pare down my possessions.

The plan is to have this all done by the end of the year, but that may be overly optimistic. I'll do the best I can, though. I'm ready to pare my life down to just what I will use or things that my heart cannot bear to part with.

1 comment:

I need to finish purging. When my mother died in 1984 I had a 3/2 house with a garage to contend with. I did like you... sold and gave away some things, kept more than I should have, and still have too much stuff. At this point, I only have a tiny fraction of my mother's things left... much of what I do have can probably be dumped... but I need to have sufficient income to cover bills while I go through it. I also need to be well enough to manage the task. When those two things converge/coincide: it shall be done. Good luck with your decluttering!